The Bride
The day wears on…
The day’s climb is arduous — a slow scurry up cliffs of layered stone, each steeper than the last. Towards nightfall, we finally fix upon our campsite, in the shadow of a great, ring-shaped rock.
But even as we lay down our packs, the air becomes suddenly chill and empty. A voice groans through the night. "Oh! Is it not a perfect thing, to know your beloved’s mind as if it were your own?”
A ghostly light throws the rock behind us into stark relief as, upon its height, a figure appears. There, floating in the thin air above the rock, is an ancient-faced woman. She bobs sadly above us, her bridal dress little more than a moth-eaten shawl about her shoulders. Her veil is a pall of white silk, her hands claws, her expression one of deepest sorrow. She is, without a doubt, a spectre long dead.
“Once, I was betrothed. My betrothed knew my every thought. I waited for him by this rock… But he never came.” Drifting close, she fixes us with hollow eyes. “I wonder,” she says softly, “whether you truly know one another?”
Otherwise, continue below.
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The Challenge
Prove to the Bride that you know your fellow travellers’ minds as well as your own!
Set a timer for ninety seconds.
The Reader and the traveller to the Reader’s left make the first pair. The pair begins by counting to three. On the count that would be four, both travellers instead say a short word simultaneously.
If the chosen words do not match (they probably will not), play continues one place clockwise, i.e. the player to the Reader’s left now pairs with the player to their own left.
Like the first pair, the next two travellers count to three, then attempt to say a word simultaneously that must relate to the two previous words. No words may be repeated in a round.
Slowly, by playing word association with the previous pairs’ words, the travellers will begin to narrow down possibilities.
If a pair successfully says the same word simultaneously, they win and the game is over.
Here is an example of play. The Reader and the traveller to their left begin play. Simultaneously on their turn, the Reader says the word ‘leaf’ and the other traveller ‘red’. The next pair, drawing associations from those two words, might say ‘maple’ and ‘autumn’. The next pair might then say ‘fall’ simultaneously, and win the Challenge.
HELP FROM AN ITEM
If any traveller carries a RING, they may repeat one turn with another traveller by calling “I do!” Neither traveller can repeat any word that has gone before, including one spoken their first turn.
Success. If a pair successfully wins the Challenge before the timer runs out, the Challenge is passed.
Failure. If the timer runs out and nobody has successfully matched their word, the party has failed.
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————If the Challenge is passed, the pair of travellers that matched their word wins. Of that pair, the traveller who most recently attended a wedding wins the Blessing of the Bride. If either traveller holds a RING, they take the Blessing instead.
If the Challenge is failed, the party suffers the Curse of the Bride. Take this spirit's card and place it in a designated area on the table so everyone can see it. If this is the party's third Curse, click here.
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————The ragged bride turns her gaze mournfully to the distant sky. “To know another as well as oneself… It is a privilege indeed. And it is how I know that he will yet come for me…”
With a sigh, she covers her face with her veil — and is gone.